O.J. Redux

The previous essay presents the position, regarding the O.J. question of the rationalists believing in O.J.'s guilt. There are also a significant number of citizens who consider that O.J., being a wife beater, must necessarily be guilty on that basis. Another set of individuals believes in his guilt because of their impression that black lawlessness is endemic and that it is therefore reasonable to err on the side of order.

In this essay I will summarize the evidence on both sides and present the argument that concludes that he is innocent. My comments are based on the book, by Lawrence Schiller, American Tragedy, which I consider to be authoratative.

Against O.J. are the following pieces of evidence: A glove, undoubtedly used in the murders and having the blood of the victims on it was found at O.J.'s residence. Socks with the victim's blood on them were found in his bedroom. Blood from O.J. and the victims was found in the vehicle thought to have been used by O.J. O.J.'s blood was found at the murder site. O.J. cannot account for his movements during the hour in which the murders were thought to have occurred. Since O.J. can be demonstrated to have attacked Nicole violently in the past, this is taken as a demonstration that he had motive.

The arguments for O.J. are mainly psychological. He does not appear to act guilty and when questioned on the subject is very convincing in his denials. He is thought to be a loving and attentive father which makes it hard to believe he would commit these crimes in their presence. He is a middle class American of a non confrontational sort and therefore is unlikely to have committed such a brutal crime when other methods were available. He had plenty of guns at his disposal and the one knife that would have been appropriate had never been used. The weapon and clothing used in the crime have never been found.

The witnesses, on both sides, are more or less doubtful regarding their observations.

So, in my mind it comes down to whether or not the blood evidence can successfully be discounted.

The most damaging evidence is the glove. The only possibilities are that O.J. dropped it on his return from the crime scene, or it was planted in an effort to frame him. An appropriate person, with a motive to plant the glove is available. Mark Fuhrman can be demonstrated, on the basis of unimpeachable witnesses, to be a strong racist with particularly negative views of American blacks. It is also demonstrable that he was very opposed to interracial marriages and there is some evidence that he may have had a romantic interest in Nicole. He is the person that found the glove and it was placed in such a way as to be unlikely as the path O.J. would have taken in a proposed return from the crime scene. He had to have driven in the prosecution's scenario, so that this proposal would require him to circle the residence and then to scale an overgrown property division boundary, which shows no sign of such climbing. Alternatively, he would have had to wander into his backyard, drop the glove and then return to the front door to enter the house. Beyond that, evidence enhancement is by no means unheard of in the LAPD.

The second most damaging evidence is the victim's blood in the vehicle, a Ford Bronco. There are blood samples on both doors and the console along with a heelprint on the floor. The police say the vehicle was locked and they didn't enter it. However it has been demonstrated that two young policeman, given the assignment of securing the vehicle, reported that it was functional. To make that report they must have started it or at least looked under the hood, requiring entrance to release. It has also been demonstrated that one of these policemen entered the crime scene before dawn and played with the dog, noting that there was blood on the dog's paws. Thus, it can reasonably be conjectured that this policeman contaminated his hands, shoes, and clothing with blood from the crime scene and then in securing the vehicle transferred that blood to it. O.J. had a cut hand at the time and his blood could have preexisted in the vehicle as a result of that cut. This cut, he says undoubtedly resulted from playing golf, a common occurrence. He recut his hand later in Chicago on hearing of his ex-wife's murder.

The third most incriminating evidence was O.J.'s blood at the scene. This amounts to several drops leading away from the crime scene towards a back gate and the later discovery of his blood on the gate. The blood drops leading away from the scene are remarkably low in DNA material. Much lower than would be expected, were they fresh. Perhaps one one-hundredth of the expected amount. So, this can likely be explained as old blood. The blood on the gate was not found until two to three weeks after the crime and in a photo taken at the time cannot be seen. This blood may have been planted in another effort to enhance the evidence.

Finally, the socks in O.J.'s bedroom. This is a particularly troubling piece of evidence. Pictures taken shortly after the crime and date/time stamped do not show the socks at all. The police inspected the socks three different times without noticing any blood. When the socks were shown to the jurors, the blood was obvious. Again, either O.J. dropped them after the crime or they were planted. No other explanation offers itself. If O.J. committed the crimes, he very carefully got rid of his clothes and the weapon, yet the socks were lying in the middle of the floor, literally screaming to be noticed, also true of the glove, by the way. So, how could they have been planted? From their failure to appear in the video taken shortly after the crime, one supposes that someone took them from O.J.'s drawer and carried them to the crime scene, contaminated them and brought them back. But, if this happened how to explain the blood not being noticed for a month? No, the likely scenario here would call for someone at the crime lab planting the blood long after the event.

One other piece of evidence were shoe prints apparently matching in brand shoes O.J. had once worn. Even though these shoes were fairly rare, I consider this evidence coincidental. There is good though not conclusive evidence of another shoe at the scene, suggesting at least two killers. This also makes sense and explains the fact that two people were killed without apparently screaming. If only one killer were involved, how would he have maintained control of one of the victims while he killed the other?

So, if not O.J., who? I consider at least one of the witness accounts to be believable. In this account a witness reported he overheard a conversation between Goldman and a latino man with a ponytail in which the latino demanded money and Goldman responded that he thought he could get it from her. To which the latino responded that he'd better or they would take her out too. Two other witnesses stated that they saw characters fleeing the crime scene at about the right time, one of which was overweight and had a ponytail.

The reason this crime fascinates along with the traditional reasons are that it is symptomatic of the times. Three elements place it in our times: recreational drug use was involved, sexual manipulation was involved, and marital violence was involved. All of these are part of the culture that has developed in the second half of the twentieth century in America. Assuming O.J.'s innocence, he is likely to pay a big price in cultural rejection on all three grounds.

Finally, there is no conclusive evidence available, either way. In spite of the millions of dollars expended in evidence collection, human weaknesses being what they are, no certain conclusion results. This is an indictment of science. Not that science is weak, humans are and science cannot exceed its inventors. Politics will always be brought to bear, and the evidence will be altered to favor one side, then the other, until no way remains to get at the truth. As was pointed out by the joker (playing a marine commander at Guantanamo), "You can't handle the truth!"

Flash! A photographic expert testified that the photo showing O.J. wearing Bruno Magli shoes is probably a fake. There would appear to be a large number of people that are willing to compromise the justice system to convict O.J.

Re-Flash! Miraculously, more photos of OJ wearing the shoes have turned up, only two years after the event.